Export as PDF
I understand (from wording that implies "still under development" or similar) that development of Export PDF is still not final, but have the following two issues:
1. Producing a PDF copy of music for one instrument (of 18 in the full score) gives different results for (a) using the "Export as PDF" (selecting the particular instrument in the drop-down list and de-selecting the "whole score" item), and (b) selecting the instrument (in the main, normal score display) only by hiding all of the "unwanted" instruments ("closing eye" within the "instruments" menu) and then printing to PDF. I attach the two results. The "normal" (with non-wanted instruments hidden) PDF now (compared to previous versions of MuseScore) seems to have a rather random incorporation of the multi-rests. I prefer the "Export PDF" version.
2. The drop-down list of instruments selectable within "Export PDF" has a selection of "instrument types" as originally selected from the available lists. This presents a problem where several instruments of the same "family or type" are selected (e.g. solo cornet, #1 cornet, etc). I believe the list should be from the user's names as given under "instrument - long name". Leading on from this, the PDF copy has one sub-title near the top left which states the "instrument type. This should be the "instrument - long name" or other as selected by the user, but there is no way of entering a name for this field on the output.
Regards,
Noel Hall
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Concerto for Bass Tuba.mscz | 113.37 KB |
| Concerto for Bass Tuba_15a.pdf | 78.98 KB |
| Concerto for Bass Tuba_15b.pdf | 252.49 KB |
Comments
Exporting to PDF isn't experimental at all, that works fine. It's import of PDF that is still experimental AI technology.
The names of the parts are taken from the part names (in the Parts dialog), not the instrument names. That's an important distinction, between a Part can contain multiple instruments. So there will be just one part name but potentially multiple instruments with it. That's why ti's important you can select by part name.
Not sure why you'd by hiding instruments in the main score, though. Unless maybe you haven't found the Psts dialog yet, which generates the parts automatically?
Regarding the rests, it's not totally clear what is going on, but if you can give precise steps to reproduce that issue we can understand and assist better. When I generate the parts normally via the Parts dialog, the solo tuba parts shows a 16 measure rest as I expect.
In reply to Exporting to PDF isn't… by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc,
I started to reply but lost the text. My task was to produce copies of brass band music from (often photocopied hand-written originals) - 18 instruments, and scores totaling over 50 pages.
I have an issue with multi-measure rests. Two of the PDF versions (15a and 15b) of the score for "Tuba Soloist" were previously attached. One was taken as a MuseScore program "front page" view and which was then printed to PDF. This version had, in its first line, 3 bars of multi-measure rests (2, 3 and 6) with other vacant bars between. The same score, when then taken, through File-Export-PDF (and selecting the "Tuba unspecified" part) produced the single multi-measure rest (16) up to the first Rehears am Mark (1). My question is therefore why does the multiple number of multi-measure rests appear? This problem did not seem to exist in MuseScore3, and there does not appear to be anything different in the first 16 (empty) bars to warrant this anomaly.
I have used the "hiding" partly because, as I enter music, I want less confusion from the other lines.
The other point I made was in the PDF version created from File-Export-PDF, in which the Part name "Tuba (unspecified)" was included. This means nothing to anyone playing the music, and in my requirement for producing separate copies for each instrument, it would be better to have this "Part name" replaced by the "Instrument long name", and the "instrument names deleted from appearing on any of the lines of music. However I don't know how this name can be changed - can't find it in the on-line help.
Because I have used the same "part name" several times in the total score, prints for different instruments with the same part name are also confusing (and unnecessary).
Regards, Noel
In reply to Hi Marc, I started to reply… by Noel Hall
You can use the Parts system to enter parts individually - no reason to resort to hiding instruments in the score.
Anyhow, again when I generate the tuba part, I see a 16 measure rest. So in order to understand why you are seeing something different,t w'ed need you give precise steps for us to reproduce the problem. But here are mine:
Result: just what I expect - a sixteen bar rest up front:
In reply to You can use the Parts system… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks, Marc.
I have never used the "Parts" system before, and I will have to get used to doing it this way. I can see that I can rename the "Part" through this system. While showing the Part name within the title block of the output, how can I temporarily hide the Part (long name) and Part (short name) - so that these names do not end up taking up space on the printout when the whole page is of that part anyway?
As a supplementary comment/issue, and related to forum issues from others, I am finding that some of the slurs which I have entered throughout the total score seem to randomly get deleted between my MuseScore sessions. So far I have not found any particular actions which may have prompted this - usually just one or more slurs which existed at the end of my last session but are not there when a new session is opened.
Noel
In reply to Thanks, Marc. I have never… by Noel Hall
I'm not understanding your question about hiding names. Do you mean, in the part, you don't wish to see the staff names? By default, you won't. The only reason the long staff name is appearing here is that for some reason you turned off the option "Hide instrument name if there is only 1 instrument" in Format / Style / Score.
As for slurs not appearing in parts, yes, there are a few scattered reports of this occurring, but so far no has succeeded in finding steps to reproduce the problem, so we're a bit stuck in terms of understanding how it happens.
Has this issue been solved?
I'm new to Musescore (working on a 10-instrument arrangement for a school) and run into the exact same issue :
Exporting each instrument via the PDF export dialog box doesn't yield the same result as hiding all unwanted parts in the arrangement and then export.
I like my parts to be organized in logical bar numbers (usually 4 or 8 per line) and use the Return key for that purpose (a red return arrow sign is added to the part) and I'd like the exports to look the same, which isn't the case. (see attachments).
Another issue: rehearsal marks aren't all exported, when they appear just fine in the arrangement (see same attachments).
I've also included the arrangement file + the full export for comparison sake.
Thanks for your help!
Pascal
In reply to Has this issue been solved?… by pask74
The parts you get exported are, well, the parts and not the score. If you hide all other instruments in the score, you are still in the score, and thus the exported score should (hopefully) be looking like what you were doing in the program. This is however an incredibly roundabout way of doing things!
To actually control how the parts look, press Parts - right at the top center of the program, next to Mixer. There you can fiddle around with each part's layout to your heart's content while the score layout remains intact :)
Editing to add that I haven't even looked at your files so please do disregard all of this is you've actually been using parts :P
In reply to The parts you get exported… by Lena Mini
Thanks, that Parts window next to the mixer helps!
Now, look at the 3 attached PDFs:
1 is the arrangement screengrab (all other instruments are hidden) for reference
2 is the standard export (export -> PDF -> tick the "flute" part)
3 is the main export with only the flute part not hidden
The 3 looks way more true to the original (1) than 2.
Also look at those crazy lines (2) : why put 7 bars on one line and only 2 on the next? This makes the song structure way more confusing than what it was intended in the arrangement (4 pars per line for a good reason!).
That being said, I'm amazed by what MuseScore has to offer.
Cheers,
Pascal
In reply to Thanks, that Parts window… by pask74
Once you generate parts, it's now up to you to decide where you want the system breaks to be for each - you have complete independent control over this for each part as well as the score. Click the tab for each part and put the breaks where you want, and do any other formatting you like.
In reply to Once you generate parts, it… by Marc Sabatella
I see, thanks, that's very flexible.
The method you recommend implies that I'd have to go through each part and reproduce the line breaks for each, though.
Why isn't the default export using the arrangement measures organization?
In reply to Thanks, that Parts window… by pask74
File 1 is your score and is what created file 3, right? You have added line breaks there, and I assume that if you hadn't, then it would look more like 2.
The reason why things don't look pretty at an instant is that you will have to tell Musescore what you want :) It doesn't know what's confusing, it only knows numbers. There are several ways to tweak this, some through general rules set in either the Page settings (Stave spacing is an important one) or Style menus (the very last option on 'Page' lets you change the final system on a page, which you had opinions on*), and some through tweaking hands-on in a specific measure with things like increase/decrease stretch.
Please do not try to make parts by hiding instruments in the score. Go to the actual part and do all the layout editing there.
In reply to File 1 is your score and is… by Lena Mini
Yes, your advice makes sens, thanks.
It wasn't clear for me that parts are actually dynamically linked to the main arrangement (I've just tried to make a change in the main arrangement and it was immediately mirrored in the flute part. Pretty magical!).
I still think that measure breaks from the main arrangement should be replicated by default on the individual parts, but maybe that's just me.
I'm working with teens and being able to tell them "Line 5, first bar" is quite practical, but yes, I'll have to explore the numerous prefs to find some sort of template that suits my needs the best, I guess.
Thanks for your help anyways!
In reply to Yes, your advice makes sens,… by pask74
No, scores and parts should not look remotely the same, it would be a nightmare since scores are supposed to contain several instruments while parts usually only contain one. Of course it depends on what each and every user of Musescore uses the program for, but for many of us, we sit with anything between 15-30 parts on the main score so line breaks aren't even a thing :P
I would recommend you to teach your students to navigate their music by using bar numbers and rehearsal marks - those are standard conventions and are also very tweakable in Musescore. You can have bar numbers at the start of each system, bar numbers instead of letters for rehearsal marks, and so on.
As for making parts identical btw - you might not be able to sync them with line breaks and such, but you can press "apply to all parts" to sync any changes you make in the settings. You can then save those settings as a style and load into any other file you have :)
In reply to No, scores and parts should… by Lena Mini
Thanks!
I had no luck with the "Apply to all parts" so far, but let's try some more.
I couldn't find a way to add bar numbers to each bar, though. Am I missing something?
In reply to Thanks! I had no luck with… by pask74
Make sure you are actually editing a part when trying to apply to the other parts. But, it is the style settings specifically that are synced - not content like the breaks you add. The plugin exists for that.
To control bar numbering, see Format / Style / Bar numbers ("measure" numbers outside the UK) and set it to interval = 1.
In reply to Make sure you are actually… by Marc Sabatella
Interval = 1
Ah yes, of course, thanks! Very useful.
I was actually editing a part when I attempted to apply the Rests pref to all parts and it did not work.
On that one, I'm pretty confident that I was not messing up ;-)
In reply to Yes, your advice makes sens,… by pask74
As Lena mentions, it is actually not common at all for parts to have the same formatting as the score - the score will typically be printed with smaller staves and be formatted in a way to just need as few pages as possible, whereas the parts are normally formatted in ways that optimize readability for each individual part - and each part will typically be different in where the convenient page turns are etc because not everyone plays the same thing.
That said, for those special cases where you are working with kids and/or the parts are simple enough that you can get away with similar breaks across them all, see the Download menu on this site to install a plugin to export breaks to parts.
Templates won't have anything to do with it; breaks are score-specific. Templates only set the style (fonts etc) and instrument list, not the specific content (notes, breaks, etc).
In reply to As Lena mentions, it is… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks a lot, that's very helpful!
In reply to Thanks, that Parts window… by pask74
... and by the way, 2 mores things:
1- Why are whole rests not centered by default in measures? I mean, working on an arrangement, I've had whole rests get centered automatically (expected behaviour) and some left aligned.
2- In a part -> Style -> Rests : I've un-ticked the "Multimeasure rests" and then clicked "Apply to all parts", but the other parts still display multimeasure rests with numbers.
In reply to ... and by the way, 2 mores… by pask74
Whole rests are a little weird - if you select the bar they're in and press delete, they'll recenter. I actually have now idea why it's like that, but here we are!
You can toggle multimeasure rests with ctrl + shift + M at any time :)
In reply to Whole rests are a little… by Lena Mini
Thank you, coach!
Back to the initial "issue": I'm trying to be a good student and have opened all 10 parts of the arrangement. Now, I need to go through each of these to reproduce the line breaks that were already present in the main arrangement. I can't not find that cumbersome, I'm sorry.
Side question: are all parts saved with the main arrangement or should they be saved as individual files?
That invisible link between the main arrangement and its parts is still somewhat mysterious to me, I must admit.
In reply to Thank you, coach! Back to… by pask74
I honestly do not think it is very common to want the same line breaks in all parts, and thus isn't a requested feature.
I'd recommend you to up the stave spacing in Page Settings
and change the minimum bar width in Style
to make it look good/acceptable, and then apply that to all parts with the button at the bottom right!
In reply to I honestly do not think it… by Lena Mini
Brilliant, thanks a ton!
In reply to Thank you, coach! Back to… by pask74
As mentioned, this is a very unusual thing to do, but if you're positive you want to do this despite the reasons it isn't normally done, use the plugin I mentioned.
Parts are saved as part of the score. The links work completely automatically. Changes to "content" are linked, changes to "formatting" are not. In some cases, you can control which formatting changes are linked and which are not via the Properties panel.
In reply to As mentioned, this is a very… by Marc Sabatella
Excellent, thanks!
Amending the main arrangement and seeing parts automatically update is a thing of beauty, I have to say.
In reply to Whole rests are a little… by Lena Mini
... and it worked, thanks!
In reply to ... and by the way, 2 mores… by pask74
Here's an experiment to try: Set a time signature with more than 4 beats in a measure: e.g. 5/4. Select the "whole measure rest", press N (enter note entry mode), press 7 (set duration to whole note), press 0 (enter a rest). You'll now have a "whole rest" (four beats) and a quarter rest (1 beat) to complete the 5/4 measure. Notice that each rest is aligned with the first beat of the rest. Play with other rests: you'll see that they line up the same way. Then select the entire measure and press Delete and you get the "whole measure rest". It is centered because it does not have an explicit duration.
In reply to MuseScore has two different… by TheHutch
Brilliant explanation, thanks Doc!
In reply to Has this issue been solved?… by pask74
Read the MuseScore 4 Handbook. For your issue, read https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/basics and, in particular, https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/parts
In reply to Read the MuseScore 4… by TheHutch
Will do, thanks!
In reply to Has this issue been solved?… by pask74
Last question (I guess) : I'm trying to write flams (drums), which should display as a little crossed grace note tied to the next. This is actually what the Grace notes palette shows (as it should), but it isn't what is displayed in the score (see attachments).
Am I missing something?
In reply to Last question (I guess) : I… by pask74
I don't see what's missing? The slur? Select a grace note and press S to make one. Not sure what else is missing..?
In reply to I don't see what's missing?… by Lena Mini
Yes, the slur. I though it would be added by default.
Thanks!
In reply to Yes, the slur. I though it… by pask74
No, you have independent control over slurs and grace notes - adding one doesn't add the other.
In reply to Has this issue been solved?… by pask74
I'm super grateful for all the help, thanks a ton to you all!
With a little bit of tweaking, my parts look much better now.
One minor thing: I'd like to use the gorgeous "MuseJazz" font for the Title, subtitle, composer, etc. but, although I can select it from the font drop-down, it doesn't seem to reflect on the parts.
I'd basically like the parts to have that Real Book feel.
In reply to I'm super grateful for all… by pask74
Assuming you also used the "set as default style" option (or made the settings within the Style dialog), then the apply to all parts button in the style dialog will do that. If you make the change in the score before generating the parts, it sets the defaults for the parts automatically.
In the future, if you want to look like a jazz lead sheet, consider using one of the jazz templates for starting out your score. Or if you're always writing for this same instrumentation, set it up once the way you like (with score but not parts generated) and then save to your Templates folder for easy reuse.
... and why isn't the mixer using the Parts names?
I'm working on a multi-xylophone arrangement and the discrepancy between names is pretty confusing (for a newbie), I must say.